Flood Defences
Flood Defences
Howard Keal
Pickering Flood Defence Group
19 St Nicholas Street
Norton
YO17 9AQ
3 November 2008
Jane Kennedy, MP
Minister of State for Farming and the Environment
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London
SW1P 3JR
Dear Minister
Pickering Flood Action Group visited former Floods Minister Phil Woolas on Monday January 28, 2008, and left with a promise that the case for defending the town would be looked at again.
Upstream storage was put forward by him as a potential way of saving people from the misery of repeated flooding which has swept through the town six times in nine years.
Since then things have moved on and the enclosed report backed by scientific research has just been produced proposing upstream storage and more maintenance as a low cost solution.
We urge you to back the finding of the Ryedale Flood Research Group and ensure that the Environment Agency takes this opportunity to protect the people of Pickering.
Up to now the Government and the agency have shown a lack of urgency and failed safeguard the town despite spending £750,000 of public money five years ago to design viable defences.
Had the project gone ahead the town would have been spared yet another flood which last summer devastated 100 homes and business and caused in excess of £5million of damage.
The plug was pulled on funding for a £6.7million scheme of walls despite the vulnerability of the town which has suffered six major floods in nine years and came within a hair’s breadth of being hit again this summer.
Our deputation of residents from Pickering in North Yorkshire presented a 4,500 signature petition calling for the Government to take action to protect the town from the repeated flooding.
During the conversation, Mr Woolas gave us an assurance that the option of up-stream storage would be investigated by the Environment Agency and DEFRA but so far there has been no progress.
A new low cost option for upstream storage is now proposed as a result of a study over the past year by academics from Newcastle and Oxford universities working with residents.
I enclose a copy of their report and ask that your department looks at the issue as a matter of urgency. Each month, every day counts and every minute matters to us.
It not a matter of whether Pickering will flood again, just a question of when and how badly. In its wake comes massive disruption with residents and businesses forced out of their properties for months on end.
This situation cannot be allowed to continue. Residents, including 91-year-old floods campaigner Topsy Clinch, who last month met Prime Minister Gordon Brown, live in constant fear of another deluge.
There is also an opportunity in the current climate to invest in infrastructure projects to help rescue the economy – as well as our community - along the lines proposes by the Chancellor, Alistair Darling.
I would be obliged if you could respond to the new proposals by reassuring residents that you will personally take up Pickering’s case within DEFRA and with the Environment Agency as a matter of urgency.
Kind regards
Howard Keal
CC RT Hon Hilary Benn,
Secretary of State,
Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London, SW1P 3JR